


Fortuna Fight

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 21:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10448151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Tan and Loretta get into a fight over the preparations for the Fortuna festival, so Louisa gets roped in to helping. Again.





	

Louisa was tracing the star-shaped tattoos that cascaded down Lisa’s back when her vibrating phone woke her. She sighed, opening her eyes and grabbing it off the bedside table to read _‘One new message’_. Right, she hadn’t set an alarm on it. She had no need to, now that she lived in Jorvik. And now that she hadn’t had anything new to do for months. Nothing exciting, anyway. Putting her phone back down, Louisa closed her eyes and tried to get back to her dream. But her body had been taught to instantly wake up upon hearing her phone vibrate, so that didn’t work. Why had she used the damn thing as an alarm?

After taking her dream to its logical conclusion, Louisa got out of bed and headed to the shower, taking her overnight bag with her. She’d decided to stay the night at her dad’s, and it had been good to catch up with him. She couldn’t hear any noise in the house, and it was nice outside, so she guessed that her dad had gone off fishing this morning like he’d planned. He wouldn’t be home until the afternoon unless the weather turned foul, so she had the house to herself. Which would be good if she had a girlfriend to enjoy that with.

Louisa changed back into her clothes after showering, not minding the water dripping from her hair onto her green Fortuna sweater that Chaun had given her. She wanted to go chase rainbows, but her bag might burst if she shoved any more horse food in there. And her phone was ringing now. Upon seeing the caller’s name, she sighed heavily and rolled her eyes before answering.

“Hey, Loretta.” If Loretta heard how bored she sounded, she didn’t comment on it.

“Louisa! Like, finally. It’s Fortuna time again, get your butt over here,” said Loretta.

“I thought you and Tan were gonna do it together,” said Louisa.

“That was, like, so last year,” said Loretta. “And Tan is being, like, a total loser about it. I have to do everything again, of course.”

“More like I have to do everything,” said Louisa. Well, there went her dreams of chasing rainbows.

“Exactly, you get it! So get over here and lend a hand,” said Loretta.

“Alright,” said Louisa to nothing but empty air. She frowned at her phone, then shoved it in her jeans pocket.

“Where are we going?” asked Vanillapie, still waiting at the stables where Louisa had left her (there was exactly no room for horses in town, and Carin didn’t mind looking after one of Louisa’s horses again for the night).

“Moorland Stables,” said Louisa. “Loretta told me to ‘help’ organise the Fortuna festival.”

“Ugh, that girl,” said Vanillapie as they rode out towards the ferry.

“I know,” said Louisa. “But I get a cute vest and some money out of it.”

The ferry ride to Fort Pinta was nice, as were the decorations that she saw on the way to meet up with Loretta. She loved riding beneath those beautiful arches. There was a rainbow in the distance, but she just admired the view. And then she rode into the chaos of Moorland Stables, where Loretta had roped anyone except the Bobcats into helping set up the festival (even though it was her job to actually set up the festival).

“Where’s Tan?” asked Louisa.

“Oh, she stormed off in a huff, talking about how unlike some people, she’d actually help out. She was obviously talking about you,” said Loretta.

“Yeah, obviously,” said Louisa, rolling her eyes. Screw helping Loretta, she wanted to find Tan now.

“Just follow the sounds of angry muttering,” said Vanillapie. There was a lot of that going on from the ‘volunteers’, but Louisa eventually rode up to Nilmer’s Highland and found an angry Tan glaring at a fence sticking out of the ground at a weird angle.

“What happened here?” asked Louisa, dismounting to stand on Tan’s level (not that being on an Icelandic had given her much height).

“Oh, there was this massive storm that moved through here last night,” said Tan. “Apparently it affected everywhere.”

“Well, it didn’t hit the fishing village,” said Louisa.

“Must’ve just missed it, then,” said Tan. “It disrupted all the championships in the area.”

“Sounds intense,” said Louisa. “So what happened between you and Loretta?” Now sadness flickered into Tan’s eyes.

“The same thing as last year,” said Tan with a sigh. “I swear that girl’s allergic to manual labour. Jenna asked the Bobcats to help with the preparations for the Fortuna festival, and Loretta said okay but then she turned around and said ‘we’ll just get Louisa to do it like last year’, then I said ‘but we agreed that we’d do it together this year’, and then she said ‘oh, Tan, you agreed to that, I was just saying it to shut you up’, and then I told her that she’s such a useless, stupid cow, and I came up here.”

“Well, she is,” said Louisa. “She’s roped all the visitors to Moorland into doing all the work.”

“Except you,” said Tan. 

“I decided to come up here and see how you were doing,” said Louisa. “She said you sounded pretty upset.”

“Oh, so she actually noticed,” said Tan. “It’s a miracle.”

“Want me to help you with this?” asked Louisa, gesturing to the piece of fence.

“It’s okay, manual labour might help me feel better,” said Tan. “I can take my anger out on this stupid fence instead of Loretta. I can’t sew until I feel better.”

“Alright, I’d better try helping out,” said Louisa. “Get some money out of it, if nothing else.”

“This year’s vest is really cute,” said Tan. “It’s worth it, if you can put up with Loretta being a stupid cow.”

“Actually, I have a better idea,” said Louisa. “I’ll send Loretta up here and you two can talk while I do everything, which is going to happen anyway. And if you get mad at her, you can push her in the mud.” Tan laughed.

“Good idea,” said Tan. “I’ll see you back down near the stables. You remember what to do from last year, right?”

“Help Julie blow and tie up the balloons, put the balloons up at the arches and pick up the trash, get the horses in with Josh and get them ready for the parade, then help with the saddles and boots and sewing,” said Louisa. “I think I remembered everything.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” said Tan. “Arya will have the vest for you when you’re done.”

“Great,” said Louisa. “See you when I’ve finished doing literally everything except putting up the arches.” Tan laughed as Louisa rode back down to the stables, finding that the road was a little slippery from the recent rain.

“Oh, did you see Tan?” asked Loretta.

“Yeah, she’s upset because you’re a massive bitch,” said Louisa. “Get up there and talk to your best friend.”

“Girlfriend,” said Loretta, so quietly that Louisa barely heard her over the noise of the other riders.

“What?” asked Louisa. Loretta rode towards the highlands, beckoning for Louisa to follow. At the top of the hill, she stopped.

“Tan’s my girlfriend,” said Loretta. “And not in the way that I usually say it.”

“Oh,” said Louisa. “I didn’t know you were-“

“I’m bi, okay?” said Loretta. “It’s a thing.”

“I know it’s a thing,” said Louisa. “I just didn’t know you and Tan were a thing.”

“Well, we are,” said Loretta. “We’ve been a thing since last Fortuna. This is supposed to be our anniversary, but Tan’s acting like a complete cow.”

“Only because you’re more useless than a rusty old horseshoe,” said Tan, appearing from the abandoned farm with mud on her gloves and riding pants.

“Why should I do something when I can get other people to do it for me?” asked Loretta.

“Because just think how good it’ll feel when you’ve done all that hard work and you can see the results,” said Tan. “Like when I sew something. I felt so proud of all those outfits last year, especially when people were talking about how good they looked. When you win races on your horse, don’t you feel good about that?”

“Yeah,” said Loretta.

“So just do something now!” said Tan. “Put the balloons up, pick up the trash, help Josh bring the horses in, something!”

“Well… Louisa said last year that she just used an air canister to blow up the balloons,” said Loretta.

“Yes, so go do that,” said Tan. “I’ve almost got this fence out of the ground, then I’ll just have a shower and change into clean clothes and then I can get back to the sewing.”

“I guess it’s just… there’s so much to do,” said Loretta. “And instead of thinking about the end result, I just think about how happy Justin would be if he could see it. And then I don’t want to do anything.”

“Justin will see it someday,” said Tan. Neither of them noticed that Louisa had disappeared some time ago. “Think of it as practice. And when he does get to see it, you’ll be able to proudly tell him that you did everything. And you’ll mean it.”

“I didn’t think of it that way,” said Loretta.

“Besides, he might like you more if he saw you doing something,” said Tan. “Not that you should be worried about him liking you, I’m your girlfriend.”

“I can still want to impress him,” said Loretta. “Don’t you?”

“Not really, no,” said Tan. “But I get that it’s harder to get over your first love. As long as you don’t think about him when we’re in bed together.”

“If I did, I’d be pretty stupid,” said Loretta with a laugh. “Girls and guys have different parts, and different bodies.”

“Good,” said Tan. She stood in front of Loretta, waiting for something. Loretta went to embrace her, then saw all the mud and thought better of it. Tan had her arms crossed over her chest, anyway. So if she couldn’t hug her, and Tan clearly didn’t want a kiss, then…

“Oh!” said Loretta, blushing as it dawned on her. “And sorry for being such a massive bitch. Can you forgive me?”

“I always do,” said Tan, holding her arms out. “C’mere.”

Loretta only remembered the mud when Tan patted her back and stroked her hair.

“Ew! Tan!” Loretta complained, and frowned when her girlfriend just laughed. Then, still fuming, Loretta scooped up a handful of mud and threw it at Tan. Not that it made much of a difference, splatting against Tan’s already-muddied shirt. Tan gasped anyway and bent to scoop up her own handful of mud.

Louisa turned around from tacking up a horse for the parade when she heard someone clear her throat.

“What happened to you two?” asked Louisa, looking at two muddy girls.

“We made up,” said Loretta. Tan was smiling, and Loretta looked happy too. More importantly, they were holding hands.

“Good,” said Louisa. “And made out in the mud, I see.”

“Only a little,” said Tan. “Most of it was a mud fight.”

“Well, I’m glad you two have made up,” said Louisa. “Can you help me with this?”

“We’d better shower first,” said Loretta. “Mud is good for the complexion, but not this mud.”

“I’ll be down to help you with the clothes very soon,” said Tan. “In the meantime, try not to strangle Julie.”

“Only because it might upset Mandy,” said Louisa.

Half an hour later, Louisa lovingly ran a finger along the silk lapel of her new vest. Tan’s workmanship was spot-on, just like it had been last year. As the parade set off, Louisa noticed that Loretta looked humble while Tan looked proud. And, when they got to the beach party and Tan and Loretta disappeared, Louisa just smiled and danced to Raptor.


End file.
